


Whenever Your World Starts Crashing Down, That's Where You'll Find Me

by snuggle



Series: Shared Canon (Dragon Age) [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, City Elf Origin, Dalish Surana, Dwarf Noble Origin, F/F, M/M, Multiple Wardens, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Surana, Other, POV Alternating, Present Tense, Rogue Tabris - Freeform, Warrior Aeducan, mostly canon compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 15:04:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6120310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snuggle/pseuds/snuggle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Launched into the no man's land of a war against two different kinds of corruption, an elf from the Denerim Alienage and a dwarf exiled from the echelons of her society work together to save a world neither of them knows or loves. </p><p>Starring a socially inept Tabris and a charismatic, battle-hungry Aeducan who are just trying to survive out here, but end up saving everybody else's ass in the process. Also features a nonbinary Dalish Surana as an original companion! Tags will be added as necessary, but we will also list chapter-specific warnings in the notes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whenever Your World Starts Crashing Down, That's Where You'll Find Me

**Author's Note:**

> The story starts in Erro Tabris's point of view. Chapter 2 will be told from Eris Aeducan's point of view! We will switch between the two for the duration of the story.
> 
> If you have played the city elf origin, this chapter should all make perfect sense to you and you shouldn't need any warnings. This chapter alludes to what happened, but the reason Tabris kills Vaughan is not directly stated (for the readers' comfort). It may be addressed in later chapters, and the tags and notes will warn for it then.
> 
> If you have not played the city elf origin, I suggest you find a description of it online, but please be warned: it involves the player character's cousin being raped, and another woman is killed for fighting back. The player character has the opportunity to kill the rapist -- mine did.

The Alienage gates slide shut slowly behind him, the final clank of the lock familiar enough to make his exit feel less...dramatic. His neighbors, family and friends will be talking about what he’s done for years, but only because the act itself is so particularly interesting. In reality, no one is surprised. They’ve been telling him all his life to keep his head down, stop stirring the pot, or he’ll end up just like his mother. 

In a way, they were right. He stirred the pot, made the humans angry, and now he's paying the price for it. The fact that he’s been conscripted into the Grey Wardens and she was killed on the spot seems like an almost trivial difference. Duncan said it himself. _Your life here is over._

He hasn’t spent much time outside the Alienage gates since his mother’s death, so he can’t say for certain if the streets are always this crowded. But he can tell the milling humans sound different today. Angry, confused.

“The other Wardens I brought with me are staying at an inn near the market,” Duncan says. Erro thinks he must have sensed the atmosphere as well. “They’re prepared to leave the city quickly.”

“Are we in that much of a hurry to get to Ostagar?” Erro asks.

“Wise question. Perhaps we should be,” Duncan says with a nod, “but that isn't why we need to move quickly. I sent the order after you left for the palace. I thought things might turn out this way.”

Something about that bothers Erro. Earlier, Duncan had admitted to coming to the Alienage specifically in the hopes of recruiting him. And while he hadn’t exactly encouraged Erro’s...foray into the palace, he had handed over his own weapons to give him a better chance of rescuing his friends and coming out alive.

Or killing Vaughan and needing to be rescued himself.

He stews on this, feeling more uneasy by the minute, until they reach the bustling market. Here, it’s obvious the people of Denerim know something big has happened. They’re shouting, arguing -- here and there Erro picks out a “slaughtered by those filthy knife-ears” and “what will the arl do for an heir?” and once, sickeningly, “they'll all be strung up on the gates by nightfall!”

“What if they…” Erro’s mouth feels dry. “Will they purge the Alienage? Will they --”

“That isn't your concern anymore.”

Erro stops in his tracks, one hand clutched to his stomach. He turns to look back at the Alienage gates, now out of sight behind the crowd. They aren't rioting -- not yet -- but that doesn't mean anything. That doesn't mean anything at all. 

He feels a hand on his elbow and, reflexively, tries to pull away. But Duncan is much stronger than he is. With one hand he holds Erro still, and with the other he wrenches the hood of Erro’s cloak up over his head. “I know how you must feel --”

“No, you don't.”

“-- but you've saved enough lives today. I'm trying to save yours. The inn is this way.” He releases Erro's arm. When Erro doesn't move, he adds, “The guard will tell these people where you've gone. They’ll be angry at the Wardens for harboring you, not the Alienage.”

The words are completely empty. Even Duncan seems to know it. 

Erro pictures Shianni, shaking and sick but still, as always, fighting back. Soris finally taking a stand at her side. And his father, sitting alone in the dark of their house, pale as death. 

_If I go back, he’ll have to watch me die, too._

Pushing all his resolve down into his legs, Erro marches past Duncan, not entirely sure where he's going. Only that he has to go. 

\--

The other Wardens are, as Erro expected, all human and all men. They stand up quickly when Duncan enters, and one half-forms the question “where is he?” before noticing Erro, small and unremarkable compared to his recruiter. 

“We can make our introductions later,” Duncan says hurriedly. “Where is Eris?”

“Not used to putting this shit on by myself,” says a woman’s voice from the stairs. Erro looks up to find a dwarf -- the first he's seen up close in years -- holding a tarnished breastplate aloft. She drops it on the table the Wardens were just sitting at with a clang and adds, “Especially when it was made for a human kid.”

“We have better armor at Ostagar, and smiths to fit it for you.” Duncan examines her with one brief motion of his eyes. “At least the mail seems to fit.”

She examines her mail and gauntlets with a shrug. “Good enough for a scrap with the city guard, if it comes to that, but I wouldn't trust it against darkspawn. Is this him?” She looks Erro up and down the way the city guard does when he gets too close to the gate, sizing him up. He tries not to let his discomfort reach his face. 

All she says is, “Skinny. Rogue?”

"Again, there will be time for introductions when we leave the city," Duncan says. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yes," Eris and another man say at the same time. He gives her a slightly annoyed look, and she just shrugs.

"Then let's go," Duncan says.

It's easy to tell, from the way she carries herself and shows little to no deference toward Duncan, that Eris is used to being important. She continues addressing him casually as the other Wardens check their weapons and luggage, and seems surprised when they remind her to check her own. “Still getting used to that,” she says to Erro, offering no further explanation than, “I'm new, too.”

Oddly enough, Erro gets a little peeved by her comment on his size, and it fills his mind as they leave the inn and make their way toward the market gate. He isn't _skinny_. A little underfed, sure, but he's strong. Stronger than Soris, at least. (Maybe not Shianni.) And he doesn't like the way she said _rogue_ , either. Humans tend to assume elves are sneaky, dishonest thieves. Are dwarves the same way? 

Or...could this one just read minds? Admittedly, he'd been thinking about how he could steal Duncan’s crossbow at the time. Just in case it came to a fight. All he has right now is the knife he put in Vaughan. Enough to kill a half-drunk, unarmored noble, but he doubts he can dispatch anyone more capable with it. 

“Is he even armed?” she asks suddenly, and Erro has to suppress a jolt of surprise. _She can't actually be reading my mind._ She's walking off to the side of the group, obviously not willing to take the rear but unable to keep up with Duncan’s longer stride. 

“Are you?” Duncan asks, visibly surprised. Why hadn't he considered that when Erro gave him back his gear? 

On instinct, he says, “I'm not. I gave everything back to you.” Under his cloak, he wraps his hand around his hidden knife. 

Erro almost expects Duncan to give him something -- maybe the crossbow again -- but instead he says, “Cover him,” and the four Wardens quickly flank Erro on every side. 

The crowd around them parts easily for a group of men in armor -- he tries to tell himself he's safer this way, at least until they're out of the city. But that doesn't change the fact that he's now trapped between five heavily armed humans, that even if he could manage to sneak free, he’d have no place safe to go. 

Something slides against his wrist and jabs his leg, something sharp. He looks down, too lost in thought to even be afraid when he sees the curved blade of a dagger poking at him through his wall of protectors. At the other end of it is Eris, looking up at him with a questioning expression.

Erro looks up briefly at the man she's got her arm stretched out in front of. He hasn't even deigned to look down. 

Using his cloak to protect his hand from the blade’s glittering edge, he slides it under the cover of his clothing and secures it to his hip for an easy draw. He looks back down at Eris to mouth a _thank you_ , but she's already looking ahead, forehead knit to a seam. 

Erro is surprised to look up and find himself only yards from the city gate. A line -- not a pair, a _line_ \-- of guards stands between them and their escape. Duncan comes to a halt in front of one. 

“Is there a wait to leave the city?” he asks, all politeness, and Erro remembers suddenly that his mother died just feet from the Alienage gate. He, at least, had made it a little farther. And taken a noble out with him. That was something. 

“Do so many of you really need to go?” says the guard. He's a hand taller even than Duncan. He looks down at him through the slats on his helmet. The rest are looking at Erro, who's trying to see what's outside the gate. He's never left Denerim before. He at least wants to see.

“Do you challenge the Wardens’ right of conscription?” says Duncan succinctly. It isn't quite aggressive, but the politeness has gone from his tone. 

“No, sir,” says the guard. “Maybe during a Blight, I'd understand, but as of now I don't see why you need to bolster your numbers. Could you explain it to me?”

“Courageous of you to ask,” says Duncan. “Rarely does anyone openly challenge one Grey Warden, let alone five and two recruits.”

The guard is clearly confused by the two in that sentence and looks around for a moment before remembering to continue. “Not a challenge, sir. Only a question.”

“Will you take an answer from someone fresh out of Orzammar?” says Eris, and only now does the guard notice her. “The darkspawn are on the move. They've abandoned some of the deeper encampments and set up shop near three surface access points within two days ride of Denerim. They're waiting for something. An archdemon, or the rest of the horde, I don't know what. But it's something, I can promise you that. You got kids?”

After a moment the guard grumbles, “Nephews.”

“Do you really care who's standing between them and what's coming, as long as it doesn't have to be you?”

The guard glares down at her, then relents with a heavy sigh. “Carry on, Warden,” he says to Duncan, and waves the signal to open the gate. 

It's like watching one wall of your house suddenly fall away. Erro has barely left the Alienage since his mother’s murder, never left the city, and now suddenly he's looking outside it, _walking_ outside it, and the gates are closing behind him --

And Eris is laughing, “Who knew I'd be good at _avoiding_ a fight?”

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "All Fall Down" by OneRepublic.
> 
> This story does not have scheduled updates, but if you'd like more information between chapters, co-authors [Max](http://icemakefrog.tumblr.com/) and [Alexi](http://draconicshinx.tumblr.com/) talk about it a lot on Tumblr!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
